Educational Funding Matters

Affluent neighborhoods have better schools.

Poor neighborhoods have the worst schools.

This isn't news to anyone, at least I hope not. There are so many factors that go into the reasons why the above statements hold truth. Resources are either unlimited or very scarce depending on where a person lives. If you're living in a poorer/inner-city neighborhood then property value is low. This in turn determines the funds of the schools. Property taxes are going to be lower thus less money is given to schools in the surrounding neighborhood. I grew up in a pretty impoverished area where, in retrospect, property values were so low. All parents were working to make ends meet and therefore lived in the neighborhood of apartments (with cheap rent). There was an elementary school nearby that didn't receive adequate resources, had low test scores, and many children weren't receiving the education they deserved. 

This is where the educational achievement gap starts. Inner-city schools are getting the brunt of education. Teachers don't want to work in these schools because pay is low, children are susceptible to problems like "ADHD", resources are hard to come by, and the government doesn't do a good enough job to fix these issues. The difference between high achieving affluent neighborhoods and low achieving poor neighborhoods is too significant to ignore. Educational funding is unevenly distributed to schools and this lack of funding perpetuates the problem in the education system. It isn't fair that children who unfortunately must live in low-income areas have to experience poor education. It is not their fault that they live in this kind of lifestyle and it's arguably not the parents' fault either. They system creates an apartheid. 

The government needs to take more initiative to properly fund schools so that children in the inner-city have an equal opportunity to achieve at the same levels of more affluent neighborhoods. These students should not be punished based on how much money they have. In this country, equality truly needs to be a priority through actions and not just words.